Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
A fire swept across nearly five acres of mostly grass and light slash between Paddock Lane and McQueen Drive on July 26.
The property is owned by Gil Little of Newport and his son, Rich Little, who lives there. The property borders Weyerhaeuser land.
Most of the fire was contained on the Little property, but firefighters stopped a couple of dinner-plate-sized fires on Weyerhaeuser property, said Jim Basting of the Oregon Department of Forestry Sweet Home Unit.
The cause of the fire was unknown last week, Basting said. “It’s being investigated. That’s really all we know at the moment.”
Eastern Lane Unit sent an investigator to examine the fire last week.
“The fuel type out there was light logging slash,” Basting said. “But it was under the three-foot high dry grass and thistles.”
Between a low 30-percent humidity and the wind, “it’d march one way, then it’d march the other way,” Basting said. Firefighters were trying to flank and punch the fire with hoses when it was about a half acre, but then it “spotted” downhill and burned back.
The fire started about 2 p.m. By 6 p.m., firefighters had it pretty well calmed down.
“We had about a four-hour run when it gave us some trouble, maybe three hours,” Basting said. That five acres had some small trees, which appeared to be from replanting.
Rich Little said any small trees there were replanted about four years ago.
What little timber that area had was logged last year, Little said, and he was getting the land ready and getting small slash piles together for planting next spring.
“That particularl area was so rocky, there weren’t big piles of slash,” Little said. “We’re really very fortunate. It couldn’t have been easier for us. No one got hurt. They got the fire out. It could have been a disaster. It could have been horrible.”
As it was, he lost an undetermined number of trees, he said, perhaps 200 to 500. The majority of those were lost getting to the fire.
Firefighters responded from the ODF’s Sweet Home and East Lane units. Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District provided two firefighters and a water tender. Weyerhaeuser provided a helicopter.
A total of about 20 firefighters worked on the fire, Basting said. That night, a 20-man contract crew from Salem worked on mop-up, and Thursday, a Douglas County work crew was there.
Between the night crew and the humidity, “it’s deader than a stone,” Basting said. Sweet Home Unit planned to keep an eye on the fire through Sunday.
“It should certainly tell anybody that’s out in the woods they need to be careful,” Basting said. Sometimes, fires will meander a bit or they’ll take off like this one did.
ODF placed woodlands under its jurisdiction into regulated use on July 19, including Bureau of Land Management forests and private forests in the area.
Higher elevations and wetter, national forestland around Sweet Home does not have any restrictions.
The property has been in Little’s family for five generations, he said. It has been used for raising timber and raising cattle.
Little works for local school districts as a substitute teacher and is project coordinator for the Foster School after-school program beginning next year.
“I would like to express my heart-felt appreciation to the Oregon Forestry Department, Sweet Home Fire Department, Weyerhaeuser, and Fred Worth for the speed at which they took firm control of the wildfire on our property,” Little said. “The depth of the response was in and of itself quite impressive. With none of the crews hurt, livestock and structures free of damage, and minimal property damage, we are very fortunate.
“Thanks to quick, responsive neighbors who called in the report, and a community of professionals who prevented what could have been a disaster.”